For those of us dependent on lower-elevation precipitation and for dryland farmers, things are not so good. These dry, windy days come one after another. I did awake this morning to snow -- about a millimeter of it -- and by late morning it was just a memory.

It all feels like 2002, the year of no rain, the year the creek went dry, the year my stepmother spent in hospitals and nursing homes, with Dad getting more and depressed. They are both gone now, but this weather and waiting for water keep looping me back seven years.